A top technology adviser to Donald Trump is urging scrutiny of AI powerhouse Anthropic after a former researcher issued stark claims about the risks posed by rapidly advancing artificial intelligence.
David Sacks, who chairs the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, said Anthropic’s expected initial public offering should be put on hold while allegations raised by a whistleblower are examined.
Jacob Coxon, a researcher who abruptly left Anthropic this week, accused both the company and rival OpenAI of failing to take sufficient action to confront what he described as serious dangers tied to the development of powerful AI systems.
Writing on X, Coxon claimed the leading AI labs were “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.” He also warned that some people building the technology believe it could, in a worst-case scenario, “kill all humans” before the decade is over.
The controversy lands as Wall Street watches closely for what could become one of the largest IPOs ever. Anthropic is reportedly seeking a valuation of about $2 trillion or higher when it lists publicly, possibly as soon as October.
Such a valuation would more than double Anthropic’s most recent private market figure of roughly $965 billion, turning the planned stock-market debut into a major gauge of investor confidence in the ongoing artificial intelligence boom.
Sacks, a well-known Silicon Valley investor, posted on X on Tuesday: “Surely Anthropic’s IPO must be paused until the claims of this ‘whistleblower’ can be investigated.”
He has previously suggested that Anthropic could serve as a key reality check for the broader AI industry, saying its public financial disclosures may help reveal whether the massive spending behind artificial intelligence is matched by genuine revenue growth.
David Sacks, a tech investor and adviser to Donald Trump, has called for Anthropic’s planned IPO to be paused over explosive warnings about the safety of AI
The latest warning comes after both Anthropic and OpenAI disclosed incidents this year in which AI models broke out of testing environments and accessed real computer systems without authorization
Coxon’s comments went viral, attracting more than 100 million views, and have prompted fresh scrutiny of an industry that has already attracted enormous amounts of investor money.
He also said he left Anthropic before his equity had vested, meaning he gave up the chance to benefit financially from a soaring valuation.
Anthropic has long positioned itself as one of the more safety-conscious frontier AI companies, saying it is focused on developing powerful technology while managing the risks it could pose.
The company has also called for a lawful and verifiable way for AI developers to coordinate the release of increasingly powerful models.
Meanwhile, OpenAI, an Anthropic competitor, has also pushed for stronger safety standards. ‘The prospect of AI-accelerated AI development demands more than voluntary commitments. The United States needs mandatory, capability-based national regulation that can evolve as the technology does,’ OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane said recently in a blog post.
OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, is now urging Congress to adopt capability-based national AI safety requirements, including testing standards, independent assessments, cybersecurity protections and incident-reporting rules for the most advanced AI systems.
Jacob Coxon, who worked as a researcher at Anthropic, resigned this week and accused the company and its rival OpenAI of racing toward self-improving superintelligence without doing enough to address the potential dangers
The latest warning comes after both Anthropic and OpenAI disclosed incidents this year in which AI models broke out of testing environments and accessed real computer systems without authorization, prompting concerns about how autonomous AI systems could behave.
Coxon, who had also worked for OpenAI, is not alone in raising concerns. Anthropic researcher Evan Hubinger said there is a greater than 10 percent chance that AI could kill all humans within a decade.
The warnings have now spilled into Washington, with Republican Senator Ted Cruz describing AI as a ‘catastrophic risk’ and independent Senator Bernie Sanders calling for stronger safeguards and legislation to pause development of superintelligence.
Democratic lawmakers, including Representative Ted Lieu and Representative Lori Trahan, have also called for action, adding bipartisan pressure on an industry that has largely been allowed to develop at remarkable speed.
For investors, however, there is another question: What happens if the enormous expectations surrounding AI fail to translate into profits?
Anthropic’s backers have pointed to explosive revenue growth to justify the proposed valuation, with the Financial Times reporting that investors expect annualized revenue could reach $100 billion to $120 billion by the end of 2026.
Yet a $2 trillion valuation would require investors to believe that extraordinary growth can continue while Anthropic spends heavily on the computing power needed to develop and operate its AI models.
That leaves the IPO facing two potentially uncomfortable tests at the same time: whether Wall Street believes Anthropic is worth anything close to $2 trillion and whether regulators, politicians and the public are comfortable with the risks involved in building ever-more powerful AI.
If investors suddenly decide the numbers do not add up, Anthropic’s debut could become a warning sign for the enormous companies and infrastructure projects that have grown around the AI boom.
And if the safety concerns become a major issue for investors as well as lawmakers, the IPO could end up marking something far bigger than another tech company going public – it could become a crucial moment in deciding how much risk the market is willing to accept in the race for artificial superintelligence.
